Posted On: February 21, 2008 by James M. Tyler

Form I-130 - New, Mandatory Filing Instructions

Here’s a follow up to my posting of November 30, 2007 regarding the filing of a stand-alone Form I-130 Petition for Alien Relative. The new filing instructions for filing a stand-along I-130 are now mandatory. When the change was first announced, applicants were only “encouraged” to follow them.

All stand-alone I-130 applications must be filed with the Chicago Lockbox instead of a USCIS Service Center. The USCIS will then rout the I-130 to the appropriate Service Center (depending on the applicant’s residence) and that Service Center will then issue a Receipt Notice.

Here are the two different Chicago Lockbox addresses where a stand-alone I-130 must be filed, again depending on the residence of the applicant.